The Journey of Hearing
The journey of learning to discern God’s voice when He speaks to us is a progressive one – it comes by trial and error.
We “hear” something we believe is His voice, then act on it – usually with a bit of trepidation.
And if it proves true, we go back and evaluate how we heard, what His voice sounded like,
and make a note,
“yup, that was God.”
When He speaks to us again the same way, with the same “voice”, we have more confidence that it is Him, and move through the same process again.
Oops! Need More Practice. . .
But along the way we often make mistakes, and we attribute things to “God told me”, when it was not actually Him, while we’re in the learning process.
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.
It seems like so often we think that because we are learning something “spiritual” it should just be downloaded supernaturally and we operate in it without error.
But that’s not what scripture teaches.
In fact, scripture indicates that what we learn in the Spirit is not learned perfectly at first; part of maturing in Christ is “practicing discernment”:
“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice,
have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:14 NASB)
So, although we need to be very careful when we move on something we believe God has told us, we also need to cut ourselves a little slack if/when we miss it –
because we are practicing and training our senses.
How to Hear
The difficulty with hearing God is that it rarely takes natural ears. . .we listen with the ears of our hearts – through our souls, or in our minds.
And in hearing God through our minds we tend to use the filter that is most prominent there:
Logic.
When we “hear” something and it seems logical, we may believe it’s God.
If we hear something and it seems illogical. . .
well, we usually need more convincing.
Then again, if we don’t “use our minds” to discern the voice of God, we tend to worry that we are just “following our hearts” – believing God is leading us, when it is just something we, ourselves, want.
This makes most of us very cautious as we try to determine if we are hearing God or hearing our hearts.
What’s Wrong With Hearing With Your Heart?
Well, as scripture says:
“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick;
who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NASB)
– at least this is this is the standard verse we use to justify ignoring our hearts.
But take a look at that verse in context.
God is commenting to the nation of Judah that their “sin is written down with an iron stylus and engraved upon the tablet of their heart. . .” God says that the man who “trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord” is cursed (verse 5).
This is the deceitful heart He is talking about:
The heart that is hardened to God.
Our Hearts Are Different
The heart of a New Covenant believer is different, though – it’s renewed –
it belongs to Christ.
In Ezekiel 36 when God talks about taking out the hearts of stone and giving us hearts of flesh,
His explanation of that is filling us with His Spirit:
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27 NASB)
When we make Christ our Savior and yield to Him as Lord, God takes that hardened heart out of us and puts in a new one – one that, rather than our minds, becomes the central place where He speaks to us and confirms His heart for us to us –
His Spirit that He fills us with.
And it’s from that place of hearing and recognizing His Spirit that He causes us to walk in His statutes and obey His ordinances.
Well Then, Where’s The Filter?
As we’re on the journey of learning to discern God’s voice, it’s important that we don’t overemphasize the use of the logic of our minds as the filter for what He speaks to us in our hearts.
Our minds often filter out His TRUTH because it is not logical.
But look at God throughout history –
when has He ever done what is logical to man?
So often, logic denies faith,
and without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)
So, if He speaks to us by His Spirit in our hearts,
how do we filter out our own desires?
His Word, as it is alive in our hearts, is our filter
– truths that transcend logic.
As we read His Word with the leading of His Spirit, He shows us different “colors” of the words and reveals meanings that are fashioned just for us – little secret treasures He shares with us there – especially for us – that many others don’t see.
As He fills our hearts with His Spirit, and we cooperate with that by filling them with His Word, that Word goes from being dogma to something that is flowing and alive – not static and stale.
The New Testament teaches that we should walk according to the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-18) – which flows through our new hearts He has given us.
Now all that He speaks and all we hear needs to be filtered through that new heart/His Spirit
– moreso than our logic.
And those who are truly led by His Spirit will echo
and come into alignment with His Word – not vice versa.
No Dogma
Dogma and doctrine can’t bring us into alignment with Him and His ways (that was tried in the Old Covenant, and God used it to prove that it can’t be done).
Instead, His written Word points us deeper to His Spirit,
Who then reveals even more than His Word can contain,
when we let His Word live in our hearts.
This is the relationship that Adam had with God in the Garden – pre-sin. God did not give him a “list of rules” to live by in order to be holy – just one rule to protect Him.
Adam walked with God and God spoke to him and taught him, and Adam learned the things that God wanted him to learn as He walked in relationship with him.
It’s when Adam stopped listening to God and instead believed the lies of the enemy that that close relationship ended.
And then, because the way mankind saw the world became twisted, God had to show us all – with a list of do’s and don’ts – what that walk with God was supposed to look like.
The Word of God: The Written Word and the Son
The beauty of His written Word is that it reveals THE Word: The Son,
and is intended to draw us into relationship with Him.
Walking in relationship like Adam did pre-sin and like Jesus did – as He only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19) and only said what His Father told Him to say (John 12:49) – that’s our example.. .
and that has always been, and still is,
God’s heart.